Last night, I signed Albert and I up for a bike excursion for Sunday - I am looking forward to it, hopefully it is not too much - haven't done many hours in one day on a bike in a long time.
Today during the break from class, I dashed across town to buy a few specialty items for tomorrow's picnic cooking and managed to get back by the end of break. Of course I was a sweaty mess, but luckily with only two students in class, nobody has to sit too close.
After class, Albert and I headed out and finally bought our piece of art for the house. Now it is all safely wrapped for travel!
After our successful purchase, we walked across to a pizza restaurant that we like that I haven't been to since early in the fall. We are trying to catch a few of our favorites before heading out next week.
After dinner we walked through the downtown area to check out the "pre-Corpus Christi" activities - lots of decorations, altars waiting for statues, bands, and more decorations. The cathedral was also open for people to check out tomorrow's pasos. Albert walked through but since I still had my backpack full of school stuff and groceries from my quick trip during the break and our art purchase. I stayed outside and waited.
Tomorrow's procession has three parts - the biggest part is religious and includes lots of small pasos and lots of children carrying candles, the second is secular and includes the city band/mayor/city officials, the third is also secular and includes some military component. It is interesting to see all of the decorated balconies and SO many alters (with completely set tables) set up in store windows, in city squares, and of course in front of churches. Yes this is clearly a historically religious event (I mean we are celebrating the eucharist.) but for lots of folks the religious angle is only a small part - it is a tradition that is hundreds of years old that celebrates art, city pride, military, and a little religion thrown in.
